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Hawaiian tsunami left a gift at foot of volcano

11 September 2004

THE mysterious marine fossils found on the base of the Kohala volcano in Hawaii were apparently deposited there over a 100,000 years ago by a colossal tsunami, nearly half a kilometre high, that swept inland for 6 kilometres.

A research team led by Gary McMurtry of the University of Hawaii in Honolulu and Dave Tappin of the British Geological Survey in Nottingham dated the marine fossils and volcanic rock on the Kohala volcano and showed that the fossils were left there about 120,000 years ago. The volcano has actually been sinking by about 2.6 millimetres per year over the …